MOTORSPORT: MINI to mount monster Dakar assault

A four-car factory-backed entry is planned for next January's 9000-km, 15-day Dakar in South America.

Heading the driver list will be nine-time Dakar winner Stephane Peterhansel.

The MINI ALL4s will be built by Germany's X-raid Motorsport, headed by Sven Quandt, a member of a European motor industry dynasty closely associated with BMW and which has already run its X3s in the Dakar.

Frenchman Peterhansel and German (but of Dutch origin) Quandt were already associated in the days of Mitsubishi's successful participation in the Dakar.

Peterhansel, whose Dakar successes comprised six on two wheels and three in Mitsubishi Pajeros, has already won the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in April in a MINI ALL4 Racing.

The ALL4, like the MINI John Cooper Works WRC developed by Prodrive, is all-wheel drive and based on the MINI Countryman production car but with a 3-litre, twin-turbo diesel engine producing 232kW and 700Nm.

X-raid Motorsport prepared an ALL4 Racing in just three months for this year's Dakar and it was running ninth -- and finished seventh on one stage -- until French driver Guerlain Chicherit crashed it during a demonstration on the mid-event rest day in Chile.

In this week's Auto Action magazine Quandt is reported by international rally correspondent Jerry Williams to be so confident the MINI can challenge for victory in the 2012 Dakar that he has switched the focus from the X-raid BMW X3s.

"The response we get over this car is amazing compared with the X3," Quandt said. "Running the MINI was the best decision we ever made.

"We want four MINIs and two X3s (in the 2012 Dakar)."

Quandt believed teething troubles with the ALL4 have been ironed out.

"The only issue we have now is of some overhang at the front and rear. Otherwise the car is very nice," he said. "We got compliments from everybody (on the Dakar) last year -- even (victorious) VW!"

While VW won't contest the Dakar as a works team next year as it turns its attention to its WRC project, Quandt said the Touaregs that have dominated in recent years and will now be campaigned privately will not be noticeably different.

"It will be the same as before with the same engineers," he said. "It makes it more of a challenge to have VW there. It can make victory sweeter."

While there does not appear to have been any official announcement of the intended four ALL4 Dakar entry, the MINI and X-raid websites to keep an eye on are minimotorsport.com and x-raid.de

The MINI WRC was sixth on debut in the hands of Spanish driver Dani Sordi in Italy last month.

Sordi and Britain's Kris Meeke will compete next at the Rally of Finland at the end of July, with four more starts scheduled this year -- but not the new Rally Australia at NSW's Coffs Coast in September is not among them -- before full participation in the WRC next year.

Our April 21 report on MINI eyeing a local rally future is here.

"Drives with Ford and Citroen have also been mooted," author Peter Whitten wrote.

Whitten said Atkinson, who scored six WRC podiums and 40 stage wins with the Subaru World Rally Team before it was disbanded at the end of 2008, "would probably be the first to admit that his time at Proton (in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship and Intercontinental Rally Challenge) has been a disaster".

Bathurst 12-Hour director James O'Brien claimed the changes and link were another step in establishing the event as "one of the premier international endurance races".

"In our first year including GT vehicles in the eligibility structure, we attracted six international entrants including three from New Zealand, one from Ireland and the two-car Audi Race Experience team from Germany that would go on to finish 1-2 in the race," Henderson said. "Our new partnership with (Dutch company) Creventic allows us to broaden our horizons and reach a significant competitor base that already exists and regularly competes in this kind of race.

"We would hope that the result of this partnership is an increase of between 8-12 international entrants in the 2012 race to complement a stronger domestic grid."

Creventic spokesman Gerrie Williams said: "Within three to five years the Bathurst 12-Hour will be mentioned alongside the 24 Hours of Nurburgring, 12 Hours of Sebring and 24 Hours of Dubai."

The date for this "other" Bathurst enduro has been moved later to February 24-26 next year to allow for cars to arrive in Australia by sea after racing in the Dubai 24-Hour in mid-January.

It's not six months since Tom Walkinshaw's death but in recent days Walkinshaw Racing managing director Craig Wilson and team manager Rob Crawford have departed HRT.

Now there is speculation that Chris Dyer, who rose from a data acquisition role with HRT in the mid-1990s to Formula One roles with Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari, may return to HRT.

Dyer had been Ferrari's head of racetrack engineering until early January, when he was unceremoniously dumped -- blamed for the race strategy that prevented Fernando Alonso fighting Red Bull's Sebatian Vettel for the world title in the final grand prix of last season in Abu Dhabi.

We had a European contact inquire this week about Dyer's position at Ferrari and the reply that came back was that "all Ferrari would say was that Chris is still contracted but isn't working there any more".

Dyer would be an enormous asset to HRT if his talents are not snapped up by another F1 team.

Incidentally, the top five teams in the V8 Supercar Championship this season are Team Vodafone on 2206 points, Stone Brothers Racing 1738, Ford Performance Racing 1610, HRT 1601 and Brad Jones Racing 1438.

Virgin -- one of three new teams in F1 at the start of last year, none of which has yet scored a world championship point -- has failed to meet its target of reaching the second section of qualifying at GPs this year.

Former Renault F1 director of engineering Pat Symonds has done a review of Virgin and is now understood, according to autosport.com, to be heading the planning of its 2012 car.

Announcing that it had discarded Wirth's company Wirth Research as its technical partner, Andy Webb, chief executive of Virgin Racing, controlled by Russian sports car manufacturer Marussia Motors, said "the team will take greater control of its own destiny".

Wirth has been a great believer in the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in F1, but Virgin is now likely to turn to wind tunnel development to improve its aerodynamics.

Autosport.com said there were reports that Virgin was seeking a technical partnership with McLaren similar to that of the Force India team.

The Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte last Monday was RPM's best race of the year.

There is speculation in America of a tie-up between NASCAR's top team, Hendrick Motorsports, and Team Penske, which also runs in NASCAR but is best known for its openwheeler success - although not last weekend at the Indianapolis 500, which it had won 15 times previously.
There were Hendrick Motorsport decals on the rear wings of two of the three Team Penske cars at Indy -- those of Australian drivers Will Power and Ryan Briscoe.

The talk of a Penske-Hendrick alliance has arisen because of Hendrick's expertise with Chevrolet engines, which will return to Indy racing next year.

Superleague is at Assen in Holland this weekend with a field of just 14, including Australian driver John Martin.

Autosport.com reports that "the football-themed series has adjusted its format this year, with many entries now representing countries in place of or alongside the previous football club livery system, and the series title altered to 'Superleague Formula Nations Cup'."

Sound familiar? And ominous?

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